1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to location based wireless services and, more particularly, to a delivery system and method for providing location-based merchant information to portable devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Given the widespread popularity of wireless communications and the availability of location-determining technologies, it is now possible for merchants to deliver advertisements to portable devices that happen to be located in a particular geographic area at a particular time. Merchants can use this capability to enhance the effectiveness of their marketing efforts by targeting consumers who are carrying portable devices in a particular area where advertisements might be particularly effective, such as near a merchant's storefront. In practice, for instance, a merchant would interact with a wireless carrier to determine when a portable device is located near the merchant, and the merchant would then send an advertisement or coupon to the portable device, as an SMS message for instance.
Unfortunately, however, this process can result in delivery of unwanted “junk mail” or “spam” to portable devices. For instance, as a portable device passes by multiple stores, the stores could bombard the portable device with advertisements seeking the consumer's business. Such advertisements could be an annoyance to the user of the portable device, as the user may prefer to receive advertisements from only certain types of merchants or, alternatively, from no merchants. Therefore, there is a need for a portable device that can determine when it is in a location where it would make sense for the device to receive location-based information such as advertisements or coupons, and responsively request such information.